We warned you here at the start of the home canning season, but we suspect not everybody reads the Botulism Blog are carefully as they might. For a Spokane, WA nurse, in her 30s, and her two children under 10, it almost ended in tragedy. Only an emergency delivery by air of the anti-toxin from the Homeland Security storage facility in Seattle has put hope back in this story.
The Spokane woman and her two young children were sickened by botulism from improperly canned green beans from a home garden. The woman remains on a ventilator and is recovering slowly. The children suffered milder symptoms.
The Spokesman Review newspaper said Epidemiologist Dorothy MacEachern with the Spokane Regional Health District is concerned that people have been responding to difficult economic times by canning more of their food perhaps improperly.
Food safety experts say special precautions must be taken when canning low-acid foods such as green beans and asparagus.
For more, go here.